9 Great European EV corridors and 4 networks to advance them or How public-private initiatives are boosting EV mobility in Europe.
- The Problem
When you think about driving your car, there are typically two scenarios: long journeys or road trips, which are less frequent but more lengthy; and short journeys or commutes, where you use your vehicle for daily tasks like getting to and from work.
Bearing in mind current EV ranges, we are confident that, nowadays, electric-powered vehicles are capable of meeting users’ needs in cities, especially their commuter needs (see figure 1). But the big question is: will we ever be able to use our EVs for long journeys, in particular cross-border ones?
2. The EU seeks to facilitate user convenience
The EU is taking EVs seriously and is working hard to try to make our road trips happen. Its approach is to partially finance projects to deploy charging stations on the main roads across the continent (pan-european roads) (See figure 2).
To this end, it has created the CEF (Connecting Europe Facilities ), as part of INEA (Innovation and Networks Executive Agency ) to support the development of high performing, sustainable and efficiently-interconnected trans-European networks in the fields of transport, energy and digital services. The CEF´s investments are intended to bridge the gaps in Europe’s energy, transport and digital backbones.
This program is divided into three branches and has a total budget of €27.4 billion (€22.4 billion for Transport, €4.7 billion for Energy, and €0.3 billion for Telecoms).
As we saw below, research from MIT shows (see figure 1) that the range of EVs is enough for most daily commuters. But for long journeys, it’s another story. People don’t want to go backwards! Normally filling up a gas tank is a mere formality, it takes no more than 5 to 10 min. Once you have got used to that (and let’s face it, every driver is used to it!). EV battery charge times seem nothing less than archaic; just 9% (See figure 3) of drivers consider that the current charge times are good enough.
Maybe that is the reason, amongst others, why many people are still skeptical about EVs or maybe they are just waiting for a next and better versions in the future. Either way, it is worth noting that most EVs in the market are leased rather than owned. The graph below from Bloomberg shows this clearly.
The OEMs are adopting various approaches in response to this trend; some are selling the cars but renting the batteries. NIO’s two pronged-approach to this problem is pretty holistic. They have two different solutions. On the one hand it offers a battery pack that can be changed in under 3 minutes. On the other hand, it offers an on-demand charging service.
3. How private corporations are taking advantage in EU
As the graph above shows, four networks are already taking advantage of the lack of EV infrastructure in the EU and the aim of the authorities is to boost their deployment. These networks are made up of all kinds of interested companies: Tier 1 players, oil companies, OEMs… in other words incumbents and startups alike. And what unites them, is the vision that EVs and plug-in hybrids are the future and that investing today, diversifying into services, is their only chance to remain relevant in the future (in both the short and medium term). Below we present more information about the four networks and the information that they have shared to date (who they are, the number of chargers, the kinds of chargers, where they plan to deploy, timelines and how they are being financed).
We have created this map to show, at a glance, what the EU will look like once the 4 projects have been fully implemented, c. 2025. Clearly, there will still be room from new comers or incumbents to expand. Only four countries will have 3 networks operating in them: France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. But what is also clear is that EU is moving forward: by 2025, there will be 764 operational charging stations on the main roads of Europe, most of which will provide ultra fast charge.
4. A winning combination between public and private initiatives
Bearing in mind the previous data we can state that the collaboration between the two sectors is being shaped by some very bold thinking. The EU is providing a great boost, in the form of economical support as well as by helping to decide where to start building (the main 9 trans-national corridors). Meanwhile, the private players are building a very solid road transport network, from scratch. Most of then are planning networks comprising 300 kWh charging points (in other words super fast), to be spaced around 120 km apart.
Let’s do the maths: the table below shows the time it takes to charge for some of the EV models sold in 2017 using a 300 kw charger.
When you compare this public-private strategy with that of the leading EV user (the USA) not in sales but yes as symbol, it is obvious that the principle is the same: if you want EV mobility to explode you have to be sure that there is sufficient infrastructure in place.
5. Conclusions
- The future is not only electric, hybrid is expected to be just as important as pure EV. ICVs will be around for a long time yet, but that doesn’t mean that the EVs infrastructure should not be developed.
- These vast trans-national corridors will be used by private individuals, as well as by long-haul commercial freight services (by different kinds of trucks: Nikola Motors, Uber — Otto, Waymo, Tesla, BYD, Mercedes… )
- Any players that aren’t creating a strategic vision for the future are going to be dwarfed by those that are. It doesn’t matter if they are incumbents or startups.
- This approach to developing these titan infraestructures is correct: private — public collaborations are the only way to go.
- The higher the charging capacity, the better the experience and the lesser the hassle for users.
- The arrival of the different networks in the different countries is closely correlated to the penetration of EVs in each market. As such, the south of Europe is, light years behind, the north. On the flipside, that means that the South has more scope to improve.
6. Some of the sources
